


I Followed My Man Into The Desert

by peterlorrecompanion



Category: Peter Lorre - Fandom
Genre: F/M, RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-06
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 05:38:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4088968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peterlorrecompanion/pseuds/peterlorrecompanion
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the summer of 1944, the Danish actress and writer Ruth Berlau found herself stranded in New York City, without a job and pregnant by her lover, Bertolt Brecht (known to his intimates as “Bibi.”) She ran into a friend of Brecht’s, actor Peter Lorre (“Lotsi” to his friends), who gave her the key to one of his Hollywood houses so she could be near Brecht, who was living in Los Angeles with his wife and children. This play is a fictional account of what may have happened next.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Followed My Man Into The Desert

I FOLLOWED MY MAN INTO THE DESERT  
(c) by Anne Sharp. All rights reserved. 

Cast:

The women  
RUTH, an actress and writer, pregnant and in love with BIBI  
INGA, a starlet, living with LOTSI  
CELIE, an actress, married to LOTSI

The men  
LOTSI, a movie star  
BIBI, a famous playwright

Scene 1: A nice restaurant in Manhattan. LOTSI and INGA are at a table with drinks.

LOTSI  
(seeing RUTH offstage)  
Ruthy! Here! Ruthy! 

(RUTH enters)

RUTH  
Oh, my God, it’s you. 

LOTSI  
You’re acting like a fan, Ruthy.

RUTH  
I am a fan. Bibi says of all the actors he’s ever worked with, you’re the only one who really understands him.

LOTSI  
Did he really say that? Is he here with you?

RUTH  
No, he’s in California. With his wife.

LOTSI  
How long have you been in New York?

RUTH  
For a while. I’ve been working at the Office of War Information, doing radio shows for Denmark. Anti-Nazi stuff, you know.

LOTSI  
That’s why I’m in town too. I’m making broadcasts for the Germans. I’m still quite popular there, I’m told. 

RUTH  
Everybody loves you, Lotsi.

LOTSI  
Anything I can do to finish off that bastard Hitler, I’ll do. 

RUTH  
It can’t be much longer now.  


LOTSI  
From your lips to God’s ears. And I’ve been doing other radio shows too, in English, the usual commercial stuff. “Mystery Scary Playhouse of the Air,” that sort of thing. They like using me in these thriller suspense shows. I sell a lot of cigarettes for them.

RUTH  
Yes, I heard you last night, that play about the man who kills his wife. You were very good. Very sinister.

LOTSI  
Well, you know these Americans, they love their murderers. Have you met Inga?

RUTH  
No.

LOTSI  
Well, this is my Inga. 

INGA  
Nice to meet you.

LOTSI  
Sit down. (She sits.) Want a drink?

RUTH  
Thank you. 

LOTSI  
(signaling to a waiter)  
So, how do you like your radio job?

RUTH  
I lost it.

LOTSI  
Oh no. Why?

RUTH  
Somebody finked on me. They told the Office of War Information I’m a Communist.

LOTSI  
Why should that matter to the war information office? The Communists are on our side.

RUTH  
Well, that’s what they say. But the capitalists are more afraid of us than they are of the Nazis.

LOTSI  
This is outrageous. It shouldn’t matter if you’re a Communist. You’re supposed to be able to believe anything you want to believe in America, it’s in the Constitution. 

RUTH  
You’ve lived in Hollywood too long. You’ve been brainwashed by corporate capitalist propaganda.

LOTSI  
True, true. Would you like something to eat?

RUTH  
No, I feel sick.

LOTSI  
What’s wrong?

RUTH  
Morning sickness.

LOTSI  
But it’s not morning, Ruthy.

RUTH  
I get it all the time. Maybe the baby’s sick.

LOTSI  
Well. So. You’re going to have a baby. Are you?

RUTH  
Yes, I’m going to have this one.

LOTSI  
Congratulations. Is it Bibi’s?

RUTH  
Of course it’s Bibi’s. Which makes it all the worse he’s on the other side of the country, in Hollywood, with his wife.

LOTSI  
Yes, that’s where my wife is, too.

RUTH  
But I don’t have the money to go out there, and I want to see him so much, with the baby coming. Can you lend me enough for plane fare?

LOTSI  
Of course. (Takes out his wallet)

RUTH  
And I don’t have anywhere to stay either. 

LOTSI  
No, you couldn’t stay at his house. With his wife and children there--too crowded. I know. (Takes out his keychain, searches for key) I have a house right near where he lives. I’ll give you the key and you and Bibi’s baby can stay there. There.

INGA  
No, that’s the key to your wife’s house. (As LOTSI looks through his keys) That’s the cottage at Lake Arrowhead. This is the one. (LOTSI gives RUTH the right key.)

RUTH  
How many houses do you have?

LOTSI  
There’s the ranch out on the canyon--

INGA  
That’s where we live.

LOTSI  
Then the place on the lake. Then the place where Celie lives, that’s three. Then there’s the one by the ocean, that’s where you’re going to be, with Bibi’s baby. And Bibi will be right up the road, and he can come visit you whenever he likes.

INGA  
(to RUTH)  
That’s an interesting ring you’re wearing.

RUTH  
Bibi gave it to me.

INGA  
Is it white gold or silver?

RUTH  
It’s made of iron. Like Bibi himself.

 

Scene 2: Ruth addresses the audience as the scene is changed.

RUTH  
If you’ve ever traveled to the west coast of America, you know what it would be like to go to Mars. I’m from Copenhagen, I’m used to ocean mists that soften the air. But here in the California desert the air is so dry you can see a canyon twenty miles away and it looks like twenty meters. All perspective is lost. When you come to California the women say, “Oh, your skin is so beautiful.” Their skin is like onion paper. The dryness sucks all the moisture out of their flesh. What is this place going to do to me, I wonder.

 

Scene 3: LOTSI’s oceanside house in Hollywood. LOTSI and INGA are being affectionate with one another. RUTH walks in on them.

LOTSI  
Hello. Inga, you remember Ruthy.

INGA  
Yes, hello. How are you feeling.

RUTH  
Sick. Like somebody poisoned me. What happened in here?

LOTSI  
I’m sorry. I don’t think it’s been cleaned in a while.

RUTH  
Don’t you have any servants here?

LOTSI  
I don’t know, I haven’t seen any.

RUTH  
The garden’s gone wild too.

LOTSI  
Yes, we used to have a Japanese gardener, but they took him away, with the other Japanese, you know, to the camps.

RUTH  
Oh, my God, the detention camps. I forgot about them. 

LOTSI  
Don’t get frightened. It’s only the Japanese that get put in the camps.

RUTH  
Not Germans? Bibi’s German.

LOTSI  
Well, there are some camps for Germans--but not Bibi, nothing can happen to him, he’s under my protection. I’m an American citizen now, you know. And besides, they wouldn’t do anything to Bibi. He’s too valuable for propaganda purposes. They wouldn’t dare do anything to the greatest dramatic poet of the twentieth century.

RUTH  
No, no one can touch him. I’m just feeling anxious, nervous.

LOTSI  
For a woman in your condition, it’s natural.

RUTH  
It’s really all right if I stay here?

LOTSI  
Of course.

RUTH  
Will you be staying here?

LOTSI  
Well, we’ve been living at the place on Mandeville Canyon, but if you’d like us to stay, we’ll stay.

RUTH  
You say Celie’s not living here?

LOTSI  
Well, you know Celie. She always turns up sooner or later wherever I go.

RUTH  
I don’t want to be around any fights.

LOTSI  
We never fight. We’re all just one big happy harem here. Much better than what you’re used to. 

RUTH  
And we don’t have to worry about the police coming?

LOTSI  
Ruthy, the police are very nice here in America.

RUTH  
No visits from the narcotics squad, you promise?

INGA  
What?

RUTH  
I’m just asking an honest question.

INGA  
You’ve got a hell of a lot of nerve. 

LOTSI  
Inga.

INGA  
This man took you in off the street. Where your great, famous boyfriend left you. Homeless and knocked up.

LOTSI  
Inga.

RUTH  
Well, I can just leave.

INGA  
Where will you go? The home for unwed mothers? 

RUTH  
I have money.

INGA  
Yes, because HE (meaning LOTSI) gave it to you.

LOTSI  
Now remember, I just promised Ruthy, no fights. Ruth, I promise you, there won’t be any trouble with drugs. I don’t do that stuff anymore.

RUTH  
I’m not trying to insult you, I just need to know the truth.

LOTSI  
It’s the truth. I’m clean, I’m off the stuff.

INGA  
Lotsi hasn’t touched morphine since he met me. He promised me. Look at his arms, not a mark on them, and I can guarantee the rest of him’s like that too.

RUTH  
You have to understand, I have to be careful. I’m already in trouble because of my politics. You can do what you want because you’ve got the studio to cover for you. I’ve got to look out for myself.

LOTSI  
Do you think I’d do anything to hurt you? While you’ve got his baby in there? What do you think he’d do to me if anything happened to you?

RUTH  
I don’t know.

LOTSI  
I’m going to take care of you, Ruthy. And the baby.

RUTH  
What room can I have?

LOTSI  
Any one you want.

RUTH  
Are there clean sheets? 

LOTSI  
I’m sure there are somewhere...don’t worry, I’ll get somebody to clean this place up. Just relax. I’ll get you a drink.

RUTH  
I should be drinking milk.

LOTSI  
Is there any milk, Inga?

INGA  
I haven’t the faintest idea.

LOTSI  
I’ll see to it that you get some milk. Some water, that I can get you. (Gets water from the bar)

INGA  
Is this your first baby, Ruth?

RUTH  
Yes.

INGA  
It’s exciting, isn’t it?

RUTH  
Have you ever had a baby?

(INGA shrugs.)

RUTH  
You’ve never had a baby, Lotsi, have you?

LOTSI  
Not that I’m aware of. No. The way I live, it’s not a good idea.

RUTH  
So you’re not going to have any, you two.

LOTSI  
I didn’t say that.

INGA  
Well, not right now. But when he gets his divorce, and I get my divorce, we’ll think about it.

RUTH  
You’re divorcing Celie?

LOTSI  
Well, I’ve, you know, talked to her about divorcing me, and she’s amenable. It won’t change anything. I’ll still take care of her, I could never just.... I owe her so much, she’s done so much for me, and she’s had so much trouble because of me. I could never abandon her.

INGA  
I’m going to go get ready. (Exits)

RUTH  
Will that one still let Celie into the house after you’ve divorced her?

LOTSI  
Celie will always be welcome in whatever house I’m living in. Nothing’s going to change. Celie’s my best friend and she always will be. Inga knows that.  


RUTH  
My man’s wife won’t let me in the door. I never get to see him.

LOTSI  
He’ll visit you here.

RUTH  
I hope she doesn’t stop him.

LOTSI  
She can’t. He’ll come.

RUTH  
(Makes phone call) I want to talk to Bibi. (Reacts as though someone hung up hard on her.) 

(INGA enters, dressed to go out for the evening) 

LOTSI  
Inga and I are going to go out and have something to eat. Would you like to come with us? 

(RUTH shakes her head) 

You want to wait here for your Bibi to come, is that it?

INGA  
Have a good time. 

(LOTSI and INGA exit.)

RUTH  
(dialing phone again)  
At least Bibi and I can be alone together. (On phone) I just want to talk to Bibi. ( Is hung up on again. Lies down and closes her eyes as the lights go down.)

Scene 4: The lights come up again; it’s dawn. CELIE enters with groceries. Sees RUTH, who’s stirring in her sleep, waking up. CELIE puts down groceries, picks up a glass from the bar and cleans it with her handkerchief, pours milk into it, and gives it to RUTH, then exits with groceries. RUTH sips milk. LOTSI enters, takes pills with a glass of liquor.

LOTSI  
How are you feeling, Ruthy?

RUTH  
I think a rattlesnake must have bitten me. Where’s Inga?

LOTSI  
She’s gone swimming.

RUTH  
Celie’s here.

LOTSI  
Where is she, is she sleeping?

RUTH  
Cleaning.

LOTSI  
Always with the cleaning. It’s not so bad in here. What are you drinking? Milk! Want some brandy in it?

(CELIE enters with some breakfast on a tray for RUTH) 

CELIE  
Lotsi, I got some of those cinnamon rolls you like for breakfast.

LOTSI  
Ohh, thank you but I’m on a diet.

CELIE  
Dieting doesn’t make you thinner, just hungry.

LOTSI  
You’ve never been fat in your life.

CELIE  
There’s nothing wrong with a little plumpness.  


LOTSI  
In Hollywood you have to be thin or they won’t let you in front of a camera.

CELIE  
You’ve made lots of pictures when you were a little soft in the tummy, and you were adorable. 

LOTSI  
That was in Germany.  


CELIE  
You can get away with it here too. All you need is a good tailor, and it doesn’t matter what shape you are, when you’re a man, anyway. Look at Charles Boyer. He goes around in those big suits like a tank around him. You should see all that he’s hiding in there.

LOTSI  
Have you seen it?

CELIE  
Boyer is famously faithful to his wife, you know that.

LOTSI  
(to RUTH)  
Aren’t you going to eat your rolls?

RUTH  
I just want coffee, thank you. 

(LOTSI eats RUTH’s breakfast)

CELIE  
Well, you drank all your milk, that’s good.

RUTH  
Is Bibi here?

LOTSI  
I don’t think so. Is Bibi here?

CELIE  
I haven’t seen him.

(INGA comes in from swimming)

INGA  
Lotsi, don’t eat that.

CELIE  
Would you like some breakfast, Inga?

INGA  
Just coffee, thanks.

(CELIA exits) 

I’d kill to get as thin as she is.

LOTSI  
Me too.

INGA  
(To RUTH)  
How are you feeling?

RUTH  
Tired.

INGA  
Did you sleep here last night? No wonder you’re tired. You should have slept in a bed.

RUTH  
I didn’t know which ones hadn’t been used already.

LOTSI  
I’ll get someone from one of my other houses to come and clean up.

(CELIE comes in with coffee for everybody)

CELIE  
Lotsi, what happened to the cook?

LOTSI  
I don’t know.

CELIE  
Did you send her to one of the other houses? Or did you forget to pay her?

LOTSI  
It’s not up to me to look after these things.

CELIE  
No, but you’re supposed to check up on the people who work for you once in a while to make sure they’re still working for you.

LOTSI  
I have work to do myself.

CELIE  
Yes, thank God, or what would happen to all of us? They’d deport us as indigents.

LOTSI  
I like taking care of everybody.

CELIE  
Yes, you’re very good to us. 

(CELIE wipes LOTSI with napkin. INGA exits) 

You should tell her not to walk all over the house with sand on her feet. No wonder it’s so dirty in here. How old is that girl?

LOTSI  
About twenty-four, I should say. I always did like a mature woman.

CELIE  
You thinking of having children with her?

LOTSI  
I hadn’t thought of it.

CELIE  
Maybe Ruth will inspire her. 

(LOTSI exits) 

Are you looking forward to the baby, Ruthy? Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of you.

RUTH  
It’s nice of you to be so good to me.

CELIE  
We’ve got to look after each other out here in the desert. But the war won’t last forever. Where do you think you’ll go after the war, Ruthy?

RUTH  
I have no idea.

CELIE  
I wouldn’t think you’d want to stay here.

RUTH  
I can’t speak the language, I can’t find work. What’s here for me?

CELIE  
Do you think you’ll go back to Denmark?

RUTH  
I’ll go wherever Bibi’s going.

CELIE  
Just you and Bibi and the baby, and his wife and children?

RUTH  
I’ve traveled in that caravan before, one more time won’t hurt me. Besides, by that time he’ll be divorced, and I’ll be the wife traveling with the extra women and children.

CELIE  
How are you going to live till then? Will you and the baby stay here?

RUTH  
No, I’m getting out of here as soon as I can. I never would have come here if I’d known it would be so crowded.

CELIE  
Where will you go? Do you have other friends to stay with?

RUTH  
No, but I have a little money.

CELIE  
Enough for you and the baby?

RUTH  
Not really.

CELIE  
Well, how will you live?

RUTH  
I suppose I could always get a tent.

CELIE  
A tent?

RUTH  
I’ve done it before. I just pitch a tent on Bibi’s lawn. His wife doesn’t like it, but there’s nothing she can do about it. Bibi can see me any time he wants, that’s the best part. It makes sense when you live in the desert, to live in a tent.

CELIE  
You’re going to live in a tent with a baby?

RUTH  
It’s all up to Bibi. If that’s what he makes me do, I’ll do it.

CELIE  
Well, that may be all right for you, but you can’t have a baby in a tent. Do you have any relatives that could take care of the baby till you get settled?

RUTH  
All my relatives are in Denmark. 

CELIE  
Ruth, you’re really going to have to sit down and think this thing through. 

RUTH  
But how can I. Everything that’s going to happen depends on Bibi, and I don’t know what he’s going to do. When are we going to be together? Will he have money to support us? There’s no way for me to know. 

(LOTSI enters)

CELIE  
So you’re off work today?  


LOTSI  
Yes. I thought I’d take the speedboat out on Lake Arrowhead. Want to go?

CELIE and RUTH  
No thank you.

LOTSI  
All right. Inga can go with me.

CELIE  
That’s what she’s for.

RUTH  
I feel a little sick.

CELIE  
Ginger ale’s good for that. (Goes to the bar to get her one)

RUTH  
I don’t like it.

LOTSI  
Try Coca-Cola.

RUTH  
Oh, yes.

LOTSI  
Everyone likes Coca-Cola. It’s good with rum.

CELIA  
Is it?

LOTSI  
The slaves that built the South American pyramids chewed coca leaves. The slaves of Hollywood drink Coca-Cola.

CELIE  
It’s a little early for rum.

LOTSI  
But it’s so relaxing. 

(LOTSI starts to massage CELIE. RUTH exits discreetly during the following.)

CELIE  
I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.

LOTSI  
Such a tragic fate for such a nice girl.

CELIE  
I have to share you with the whole world, that’s my fate.

LOTSI  
The world got the best part of me. The part that goes onstage. You ended up with the worst part, the offstage part. That’s what went wrong with us, isn’t it?

CELIE  
Are you in psychoanalysis again? 

LOTSI  
I’m just trying to understand how things ended up this way. It’s not how I wanted it to be.

CELIE  
It’s not fair, is it?

LOTSI  
No! I’m old-fashioned, I don’t understand this American mania for divorce. It used to be better when a man could just have his wife, and then have friends, you know, not always having to choose between one and the other. And it was so much less expensive. 

CELIE  
Divorce is expensive. So is alimony.

LOTSI  
It’s ridiculous. I’m an honorable man, you know I’ll take care of you for the rest of your life. I don’t see why we have to bring lawyers into it.

CELIE  
We may as well do it all properly, as long as we’re going through with it.

LOTSI  
I’ll do whatever you want. You’ve been very good about this, very patient.

CELIE  
What I don’t understand is why she’s insisting on marrying you.

LOTSI  
I think it has to do with Bogie marrying his girlfriend. Now she wants to do it. A double wedding is what I think she has in mind.

CELIE  
You could save a little money that way.

LOTSI  
I don’t think that’s part of her plan.

CELIE  
But it probably doesn’t look good for you to be living together. 

LOTSI  
It really doesn’t. 

CELIE  
Though the public seems to love adultery. The Hollywood movies are full of it. It’s so romantic, forbidden love.

LOTSI  
I think I’ll just take her to Las Vegas and marry her there.

CELIE  
Then you’ll be a real American couple.

LOTSI  
Let’s not talk about it any more.

CELIE  
You really would prefer to just be married to both of us at the same time, wouldn’t you?

LOTSI  
Isn’t that the most civilized solution? Look, it’s been done that way in Africa, China, Arabia, Utah. How come European men only get one woman at a time?

CELIE  
Isn’t this what Bibi calls “the bourgeois problem”? How about Bibi, has he made any progress on that script he’s supposed to be writing for you?

LOTSI  
He gave it to me yesterday.

CELIE  
It’s finished?

LOTSI  
Not really.

CELIE  
Poor Bibi. He’s not used to working by himself. I’ve never known a writer who went through so many assistants. Why does he have to keep getting them pregnant? Well, he’s lucky he has you to keep him and his wife and children and his mistresses and their children from starving to death.

LOTSI  
Do me now.

CELIE  
(kneading him)  
That girl looks sick to me. I hope he hasn’t given her a disease. Has she been to a doctor? 

LOTSI  
I don’t know. Do it harder. Harder than that.

CELIE  
I’m tired, Lotsi, I’ve been up all night cleaning this million-dollar hovel of yours.

LOTSI  
I’ll put you to bed. Come. (As they exit they run into INGA, who goes to the bar for a glass of liquor. LOTSI stays.)

INGA  
Does he have to come here? 

LOTSI  
Who?

INGA  
Bibi. 

LOTSI  
He’s an honored guest here. He’s the greatest living playwright in the German language. And he’s my friend.

INGA  
As long as you can do something for him.

LOTSI  
Inga.

INGA  
I don’t like him. Last time we were there he put his hand up my skirt. And you were right there!

LOTSI  
Well, he’s like that.

INGA  
Oh, it’s all right with you?

LOTSI  
You have to take him as he is.

INGA  
You really wouldn’t mind if I went to bed with him, would you?

LOTSI  
I know you wouldn’t. Fifteen years ago, maybe. But not the way he is now.

INGA  
So he wasn’t always this hideous.

LOTSI  
Women really liked him. Men too. He just lived like a devil, he could do anything he wanted and get away with it. But now the only ones who’ll tolerate him are the ones that really love him. And there are less and less of them.

INGA  
I’ve heard that he’s really not as good a writer as they say he is. He finds people who are good writers and seduces them and gets them to write his plays for him. 

LOTSI  
That’s old gossip. 

INGA  
No, you know who told me that? Kurti.

LOTSI  
My God.

INGA  
And he should know, shouldn’t he? Kurti says Bibi likes to pretend to be a proletarian artist who doesn’t care about money, but it’s just an act, he hides all his money in Swiss banks and pretends to be poor so he can sponge off his friends. But it’s the fact that he takes all the money and credit and lets other people do all the work that’s the worst part. No wonder his girlfriends are so ugly--they’re all writers.

LOTSI  
Oh, Inga.

INGA  
How can Ruth stand him? He stinks. Literally, he smells bad, he doesn’t wash. I don’t know how she can stand to kiss him, he never brushes his teeth. She must always be getting infections. I don’t like being in the same house as a woman who’d touch that man. (Sees RUTH coming, exits.)

LOTSI  
(to RUTH)  
Good morning.

RUTH  
(picking up script)  
What’s this?

LOTSI  
The script your lover is writing for me.

RUTH  
He’s here?

LOTSI  
No, I met him in town last night. 

RUTH  
Why didn’t he come to see me?

LOTSI  
I suppose he was busy writing. He must have a lot of projects he’s working on, he obviously hasn’t spent a lot of time on this one.

RUTH  
Let me see.

LOTSI  
I’ll be frank, I’m disappointed.

RUTH  
He must have typed this himself. It’s terrible. 

LOTSI  
No, he’s not a very good typist.

RUTH  
Can I borrow your pen? 

(LOTSI gives her his pen. RUTH starts reading through script)

LOTSI  
You’re not going to mark it up and change it. I don’t know if he’ll like that.

RUTH  
Oh, yes, he likes it, I do it all the time.

LOTSI  
Do you? (Takes a couple of pills, washing them down with liquor)

RUTH  
What are those pills you’re taking?

LOTSI  
You want some? It’s not dope, if that’s what you’re afraid of. It’s just medicine to help my nerves a little.

RUTH  
Maybe I should take some.

LOTSI  
Help yourself.

RUTH  
(taking pills with a sip of LOTSI’s drink)  
Oh, this is dreadful.

LOTSI  
I hate to say it, there’s no producer in town who’d take a property this bad.

RUTH  
Not when it’s in this condition. Do you have a typewriter?

LOTSI  
Not here. My secretary has one.

RUTH  
Could you have her send it over?

LOTSI  
I don’t think retyping it’s going to help. But if it makes you happy, a woman in your condition should be indulged. (Starts dialing phone)

RUTH  
And then will you call him for me? I’d call him myself but his wife keeps hanging up on me.

LOTSI  
Poor Ruthy. (To his secretary on the telephone): Hello. Listen, can you come to the beach house? Bring your typewriter and as much paper as you can get. Yes, right away, this is a vital moment in German-American literature. Goodbye! (Hangs up.)

RUTH  
Is it true you studied psychology with Freud in Vienna?

LOTSI  
Oh, no, don’t believe everything you read in the movie magazines. Back when I first came to America some publicist wrote a press release saying that the reason I’m so good at playing scary murderers is that I’m a student of criminal psychology. And then some silly writer in a fan magazine wrote that I studied psychology with Freud, and suddenly everybody was saying I was a Freudian psychoanalyst who went onstage and started imitating his crazy patients. It’s ridiculous. I never went to university, I barely finished high school. But I do know a lot about psychotherapy. I’ve had enough of it.

RUTH  
I was hoping you could give me some Freudian insights into...how I ended up here in this desert.

LOTSI  
You mean, with Bibi.

RUTH  
If only I was with Bibi! But I’m not, that’s the trouble.

LOTSI  
It’s always the trouble.

RUTH  
I get the feeling you’ve seen all this happen before.

LOTSI  
It’s true, I’ve known Bibi for quite a few years. And I’ve met a lot of the ladies who’ve loved him. And it seems to me that they’re all very smart, and very accomplished, and very adventurous. And Bibi is their idea of an adventure. But the problem with Bibi is, you can’t get enough of him. He doesn’t give you enough. So you keep going back for more of him, and you’re still not satisfied, so then you’re back again. 

RUTH  
It’s like an addiction, really.

LOTSI  
God, let’s not talk about addiction. I’ll try another metaphor. When we love, Bibi and I love like lions. Only the finest lionesses seek us out; we don’t choose them, you see, they choose us. And not just one lioness. Because women are so cooperative, they form a pride around us. The best lions aren’t easy to find, so they share us communally. Lions are Communists too, you know. And if our lionesses want us to father their cubs, we’ll do it, and if they give us the lion’s share of their kill, we’ll eat it up. Someday we’ll be old and mangy and they’ll bite us and chase us away. I’m not looking forward to that. But now I’ll call your Bibi for you.

RUTH  
If you really cared about me, you wouldn’t call him.

LOTSI  
But don’t you want me to?

RUTH  
I do.

LOTSI  
All right, I’ll call him. And whatever happens, you’ll have only me to blame. (Makes call) Bibi? Call for you. 

(LOTSI gives phone to RUTH, exits)

RUTH  
Oh, my God, how did you manage to get to the phone before she did?...Oh, really? Listen, if she’s not there, you should come here.... Yes... Right now.... Well, bring the script. We’ll work on it together.... Not, I don’t have a typewriter, but Lotsi’s getting one for me.... I doesn’t matter. I’ll write longhand. There’s got to be some paper around here somewhere.... Well, bring some paper with you. It doesn’t matter. Just come see me! You know where I am, don’t you?... I’m at Lotsi’s house.... Which one? The one by the ocean... No, that’s where Celie’s living. I’m at the other one. Lotsi says you’ve been here before.... Yes, that’s the one. You should come, it’s nice. We could go to the beach.... Bibi, the baby misses you... Yes, he does.... Yes, he’s a boy. A son, Bibi.... I know you already have a son.... HOW MANY sons?... Oh Bibi... Yes.... All right, I’ll have Lotsi call you.... I love you, Bibi. The baby loves you.... All right.... All right.... Yes.... I will....Yes, I’ll be good. I’m being very good. Are you? Being good?... Bibi? (Realizing he’s hung up on her)  


Scene 6: That evening. LOTSI is drinking, CELIE is dusting. RUTH enters.

RUTH  
He’s here! 

(BIBI enters. RUTH kisses him)

BIBI  
You taste like a mother.

RUTH  
What does that taste like?

BIBI  
(to LOTSI)  
So what do you think?

LOTSI  
What do I think?

BIBI  
Of the play I wrote for you.

RUTH  
He likes it.

BIBI  
Likes it? He likes it, lucky for me. Maybe I’ll be the first person in Hollywood to actually make art for a living, rather than being a whore. Lotsi, your next assignment will be to draw up a list of actors you think would be right for the cast. I don’t know who the most famous stars are in America, and I really don’t care, so long as they’ll work for me, for next to nothing. And we’ll need at least three months for rehearsal. How’s the money situation, do we have any backers yet?

LOTSI  
We don’t have a script yet.

BIBI  
We could always do the show without bringing the capitalists into it. We could use your money.

LOTSI  
I don’t have that much money. To put on a Broadway play you have to be a millionaire.

BIBI  
You’re a movie star.

LOTSI  
I’m not a millionaire. 

BIBI  
How much do you make a week?

CELIE  
Bibi, what a question. You don’t ask--

BIBI  
Celie. Don’t interrupt me, please, I’m talking to your husband. (To LOTSI, as CELIE exits) Why don’t you sell one of your houses? You’ve got four of them.

LOTSI  
I’m already using them to house all your women and children.

BIBI  
Well, what else do you have to sell? You’re an actor. You sell yourself. Look at you, you’re not doing anything right now. Who’s that actor who works like a whore and has a houseful of French paintings worth a fortune?

LOTSI  
He’s in debt up to his ears, just like me.

BIBI  
(to RUTH)  
Did you see those movies he made before the war, about the little Chinese detective? 

RUTH  
I loved them.

BIBI  
Everyone loved them. Why don’t you make more of them?

LOTSI  
He was Japanese, not Chinese.

BIBI  
Which means he’s in a concentration camp now. Unless he managed to run away to Japan and join the war against the Americans. He can be an evil detective like Fu Manchu. I loved those pictures. I could write a screen treatment for you and you could sell it to your studio boss. Giving me full credit, of course.

LOTSI  
You have no idea how the movie business works, do you?

BIBI  
It works like any other business. By theft, murder and prostitution. 

RUTH  
Bibi, I typed a nice clean copy of your play for you.

LOTSI  
Oh, yes, go get that, please. 

(RUTH exits)

BIBI  
Where’s that girl of yours, Lotsi?

LOTSI  
Inga? She’s swimming.

BIBI  
You can’t find girls like that in the theater anymore, they’re all going into the movies. And that’s why you’ve got to help me.

LOTSI  
What, get you women?

BIBI  
Yes, that and sell my screenplays.

LOTSI  
You know I’m your man.

BIBI  
Then prove it. Why don’t you set me up with Inga?

LOTSI  
Bibi.

BIBI  
Tell her it’ll make you love her even more.

LOTSI  
Even if she was that kind of girl, she doesn’t like you.

BIBI  
She doesn’t know me very well.

LOTSI  
She’s heard things. She says your girlfriends write all your plays for you. You take credit for their work.

BIBI  
Where did she hear that?

LOTSI  
Kurti told her.

BIBI  
That bourgeois bastard. No wonder I’m having trouble getting work, if he’s spreading stories like that around town. 

(RUTH comes in, gives BIBI script) 

LOTSI  
Thank you, Ruthy.

BIBI  
Get me some coffee, will you?

(RUTH exits)

BIBI  
How do you get all the most best-looking women, as ugly as you are?

LOTSI  
There’s no accounting for women’s tastes.

BIBI  
I always get stuck with the medium pretty ones. 

LOTSI  
Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve been smothered in beautiful women. I’d be proud of a girl like Ruth. 

BIBI  
She’s over the hill.

LOTSI  
She’s my age. I’d take her in a minute if I could afford another woman.

BIBI  
That’s your secret, you pay for them.

LOTSI  
That’s not a nice thing to say.

BIBI  
You think Inga would look at you if you didn’t have four houses and your face up on ten thousand movie screens every week? 

LOTSI  
Probably not.

BIBI  
You’d be like me. Stuck with women like Ruth.

LOTSI  
You don’t like her very much, do you?

BIBI  
She’s just like the rest of them. Always wanting something.

LOTSI  
She’s in love with you, Bibi.

BIBI  
She isn’t faithful to me. How do I know that’s my baby?

LOTSI  
You’ll see when it comes out, won’t you?  
BIBI  
I guess I could do a blood test. Not that it matters. I’ve told her, she’s on her own with that baby.

LOTSI  
She told me you promised to marry her.

BIBI  
I’d never do a stupid thing like that. I can’t marry every woman who shows up with one of my children. 

LOTSI  
You should use birth control, Bibi. I keep telling you.

BIBI  
I can’t stand wearing a rubber.

LOTSI  
Make them wear a diaphragm, then. 

BIBI  
But then they’ve got douche bags hanging all over everything.

LOTSI  
It’s better than getting them pregnant.

BIBI  
But they like getting pregnant. It’s something they can hold over my head. “See how big and ugly I am, and it’s YOUR fault.” 

(RUTH comes in with coffee for BIBI and LOTSI)

LOTSI  
Thank you, Ruthy.

BIBI  
Are you planning to stay in Hollywood after the war?

LOTSI  
No, I’m going back to Germany.

BIBI  
Really.

LOTSI  
God knows they’ll need artists. They’ve killed off all the good ones.

BIBI  
Aren’t you afraid to go back there?

LOTSI  
Why should I be? 

BIBI  
Well, when you consider how many of your people they’ve killed.

LOTSI  
The Germans are my people. Why should I be afraid of them? Am I afraid of you?

BIBI  
Maybe you should be.

LOTSI  
Where are you going after the war? You’re not staying here.

BIBI  
Not a chance. I’m definitely getting out of Hollywood. I’ve got friends in Moscow, maybe I’ll go there. You should go, too. 

LOTSI  
I couldn’t be a Communist any more than I could be a Nazi. I wouldn’t last a day in Russia. I’d say something somebody didn’t like and I’d end up in a death camp.

RUTH  
There aren’t any death camps in Russia.

LOTSI  
Of course there are. Do you think Hitler invented them? He’s a plagiarist; he stole the idea of the master race from the Ku Klux Klan and the death camps from Stalin. 

BIBI  
How about the American camps? Oh, I forget. There aren’t any Jews in those camps. Just Japanese. I suppose it’s all right living in a fascist state when it’s not your people being taken away in the night.

LOTSI  
Does it bother you, my being a Jew?  


BIBI  
What bothers me is that you’re a slave. The studio owns you.

LOTSI  
If they offered you a contract that paid as much as mine, would you sign it?

BIBI  
I’m better at negotiating contracts than you. I got twenty thousand dollars for that scenario I wrote for that Nazi picture. 

RUTH  
(shocked)  
You told me it was two hundred!

LOTSI  
You’ve been doing a lot better out here than I thought you were, Bibi.

BIBI  
Well, you forget I’ve got a wife and children to feed. Plus I haven’t gotten much work since then, except for what you’ve given me.

LOTSI  
It’s easy enough to go through twenty thousand dollars in this town.

BIBI  
Easy enough for you, with your speedboats and starlets. What would you do if the studio didn’t renew your slave labor contract next year?

LOTSI  
I’d sign another one with another studio.

BIBI  
And when that contract ran out?

LOTSI  
Then I’d take whatever came along. I don’t need to earn the big money. I slept on park benches when I was starting out in the theater, I can do it again. 

BIBI  
You’re a funny sort of Jew.

 

LOTSI  
Are you sure you’re not Jewish? You think an awful lot about money.

BIBI  
Well, you should get out of Hollywood, anyway, as soon as you can.

LOTSI  
I suppose I should. I like it too much here, it’s too easy. It’s making me lazy.

BIBI  
We should go to Moscow and start a theater. You could play Hamlet, Lotsi. Instead of playing Chinese detectives, you could play Faust. 

LOTSI  
Listen, Bibi, try to understand. I gave up my language, my people, dragged myself halfway across the world to escape one antisemitic dictatorship. Why would I voluntarily deliver myself into the hands of another one?

RUTH  
There’s no antisemitism in the Soviet Union.

LOTSI  
There’s plenty of Russians, though, and they’ve killed more Jews than Hitler.

BIBI  
You’ve spent too many years listening to American propaganda. They’ve brainwashed you.

LOTSI  
Maybe so.

BIBI  
If you’re so afraid of the antisemites, maybe you should go to Palestine.

LOTSI  
If I’ve got to live in a desert, I prefer Hollywood.

BIBI  
All Hollywood can offer you is money.

LOTSI  
What’s wrong with a regular paycheck for a working man? I’m extravagantly compensated, I’ll admit, but my profession’s a little more unstable than yours. An actor doesn’t own his own means of production. You can make your art anywhere with a paper and pencil. I need a stage, and that’s expensive real estate. You think it’s easy to pretend to be a millionaire on a thousand dollars a week? But I have to spend almost everything I make so I look successful. Otherwise I don’t get work.

BIBI  
It’s a racket.

LOTSI  
It was the same racket in Berlin, and Vienna, and Zurich, my friend. And now excuse me while I micturate. (Exits.)

BIBI  
(looking at script)  
Has Lotsi read this?

RUTH  
He’s only read the version you gave him the other day.

BIBI  
That was pretty rough.

RUTH  
I smoothed out a few things. 

BIBI  
You’re a good girl. Let’s go down to the ocean and look for Japanese submarines.

(RUTH and BIBI exit. LOTSI enters, picks up script and leafs through it. CELIE comes in)

CELIE  
Is he gone? Thank God. Poor Ruthy. Maybe after I’ve gotten a couple of decent meals into her I might be able to talk her into leaving that horrible man.

LOTSI  
You can’t, it’s hopeless.

CELIE  
I’ve got to try. The poor thing’s half dead, that’s the way his women always are. I’d like to have a doctor look at her. Do you think you could--  
(LOTSI gives her money)  


Oh, well, if you’ve got that much. Could you see your way clear to sending her to a psychiatrist for a couple of months?

LOTSI  
I don’t see how that could help.

CELIE  
You’re afraid of Bibi, aren’t you?

LOTSI  
He wouldn’t like it.

CELIE  
Lotsi, the woman’s not all there, you’ve got to be able to see that. It scares me to think what’s going to happen to her. Lots of women have nervous breakdowns after they have a baby.

LOTSI  
A lot of women die, too. Like my mother.

CELIE  
There’s always that, too. She’s got to see a doctor.

LOTSI  
Glad we never had a baby.

CELIE  
Oh, I have a baby, all right (meaning him). I’ll never get used to living in this desert. Look at my skin, what the sun’s doing to it. I’m turning into a mummy.

LOTSI  
You’re a pretty mummy.

CELIE  
I’d give anything for a little soft rain on my face.

LOTSI  
I’m the one who’s drying out. Look at the skin under my eyes.

CELIE  
I’ve got a cream that’ll take care of that. 

LOTSI  
I can’t wait for the war to be over so we can go home.

CELIE  
No matter how many houses you buy out here, it’s never home, is it?

 

Scene 7: LOTSI’s place, a couple of weeks later. LOTSI and RUTH.

LOTSI  
Psychoanalysis is actually very beneficial. You know, I could treat you to a couple of sessions if you’d like to try it.

RUTH  
Oh, I couldn’t put you to that expense. Besides, it’s narcissistic and counterrevolutionary.

LOTSI  
Then again, there are many methods psychology has to offer. Psychodrama. Role-playing. That would be perfect therapy for an actress.

RUTH  
These days it’s hard to remember I ever worked in the theater at all.

LOTSI  
Well, it’s hard for a real actress to get work in Hollywood. Look at Celie, she hasn’t worked since we got here ten years ago.

RUTH  
Well, Celie and I are too old for Hollywood, that’s the truth of it. And we don’t have that Hollywood look you have to have. The great big head and the big eyes. You’ve got it.

LOTSI  
Yes. If only I were as pretty as you are.

RUTH  
Millions of people pay good money to see your face on a great big screen. I’ve paid to see you myself. And I’ll tell you the truth, you’re really not that hard to look at.

LOTSI  
When I went to my first audition at Bibi’s theater back in Germany, the stage manager laughed at me and told me I looked like a tadpole.

RUTH  
Oh, but tadpoles are cute.

LOTSI  
This is what I’ve come to. Cute. Ruthy, let’s try an acting exercise. Are you in the mood? We’ll improvise a scene. This is a psychoanalyst’s couch. You be the doctor, you sit here. And I’ll be the patient lying down, I’ll be you.

RUTH  
Me?

LOTSI  
Yes, I’ll be you, and you be the doctor, analyzing a patient, Ruthy, a great beauty and a great woman of the theater, in other words, you. Me. You.

RUTH  
A great woman of the theater who hasn’t worked in the theater in years.

LOTSI  
Is there any better reason to be on the couch?

RUTH  
What do I do?

LOTSI  
What any psychoanalyst does. You take notes on your little pad of paper, and listen. 

RUTH  
All right, Ruth. Go ahead.

LOTSI  
I’m going to have a baby. It’s an awful responsibility. And I’m afraid. It’s going to hurt.

RUTH  
I’m not afraid of that.

LOTSI  
And the man who’s the father of this baby doesn’t treat me very well.

RUTH  
That’s not news.

LOTSI  
But I can’t give him up because I love him...

RUTH  
Go on.

LOTSI  
And that, I think, is because I have an inferiority complex. I let this man treat me like a silly idiot even though I’m really more clever than he is. I let him get me pregnant because he’d promised to marry me, but now he won’t do it. And I had a good life before I met him. My husband in Denmark was a rich man, and he took good care of me. 

RUTH  
I would have left my husband anyway. I was Nora in the doll’s house with him. I needed to strike out on my own and be a free woman.

LOTSI  
But I left him for a man who treats me like I’m stupid, the way he treats all his women. And his men.

RUTH  
It’s true. I feel stupid when I’m around him. He makes me feel like nothing. I only feel like myself when he’s away. But it kills me to be away from him. Why is that?

LOTSI  
Am I masochistic?

RUTH  
I don’t think so. I don’t like to suffer, I like to be happy.

LOTSI  
But the only way he can be happy is if he feels better than everyone else. 

RUTH  
He does the same thing to you, doesn’t he? Makes you feel small.

LOTSI  
Yes, I hate it.

RUTH  
Why do we put up with it?

LOTSI  
It makes us feel important to be with him. Because he’s...

RUTH and LOTSI:  
The greatest dramatic poet of the twentieth century.

LOTSI  
And that’s important.

RUTH  
But it’s wrong the way he tears you down. You’re as good as he is. People say you’re the greatest actor of your generation. Millions of people go to see your movies every week and they love you.

LOTSI  
They say that show business is the business of putting bottoms in seats. That’s what I do.

RUTH  
Bibi’s never known how to put bottoms in seats. He needs a lot of help doing it.

LOTSI  
He’ll never make it in Hollywood, that’s for certain.

RUTH  
I know. 

LOTSI  
There’s nothing we can do for him here.

RUTH  
He’d be better off in Moscow, working for the workers’ revolution.

LOTSI  
After the war, if he goes over to the Communists, will you go with him?

RUTH  
Of course.

LOTSI  
Well, there are benefits to being the mistress of the greatest living dramatist in the German language. You’ll be mentioned in all the books about him; they’re already writing about him in the universities. Think of your name in all those indexes and appendices.

RUTH  
Your name will be there too.

LOTSI  
Satisfying, isn’t it? Better to be a footnote in literary history than a Hollywood has-been.

RUTH  
You’re not a has-been, you’re a star.

LOTSI  
Till the war’s over, anyway. Then I can go back to Germany and be an actual actor again. Want another drink?

RUTH  
I shouldn’t.

LOTSI  
I got the manuscript back from Bibi.

RUTH  
Is it finished?

LOTSI  
He says it’s the finished version. But this is the copy you typed for him. He must’ve gotten them mixed up.

RUTH  
No, that must mean he likes my version and he wants to go ahead and use it.

LOTSI  
I thought you were just making corrections.

RUTH  
I guess you could call it editing.

LOTSI  
More than editing. You practically rewrote the whole thing. This makes me think of that story going around about how Bibi doesn’t write his own plays.

RUTH  
Poor Bibi, they’re always saying that.

LOTSI  
He’s got a lot of enemies.

RUTH  
If only he didn’t make so many of them.

LOTSI  
Well, is it true?

RUTH  
What?

LOTSI  
That Bibi doesn’t write his own plays?

RUTH  
Of course he does.

LOTSI  
But you just told me that you as much as wrote an entirely new version of this play, and now he’s giving it back to me saying it’s all his.

RUTH  
Well it is.

LOTSI  
But it isn’t. 

RUTH  
Oh, Lotsi, you don’t understand. You know how Bibi always says he’s the greatest dramatic poet of the twentieth century. 

LOTSI  
That’s true, he’s a great poet.

RUTH  
Yes, his poetry is...oh, there’s nothing like it. But the truth is, he can’t write a play worth a damn. He doesn’t know the first thing about dialogue, or how to structure a scene, or how to build a consistent character. Because he’s a poet, not an actor. And you have to know something about acting if you’re going to build a play that works. You know, a machine that people can get into and travel around in. So he gets people to help him, like me and Betti and Greta. 

LOTSI  
Greta?

RUTH  
I don’t think you ever met her. She came along after you went to Hollywood. Wasn’t much to look at. Sickly. Weak lungs and a bad heart. But she was the best of all of us. She worked herself to death for Bibi. Literally. 

LOTSI  
Worked herself to death. Writing his plays for him.

RUTH  
The doctor told her she had to rest, but she got up and pounded that typewriter like a fighter, you couldn’t stop her. She was a tough little thing. A real woman of the people. Those were the best plays, the ones that Greta wrote for him. Bibi was devastated when she died. He didn’t smile for four whole days. That’s why it’s so important that we all help him, you see, we’ve got to work with him, to keep him going. Well, we have to, it’s our responsibility. He’s the most important writer in German literature, we don’t dare let him fail. He’s our legacy. The one thing we’ll be remembered for is having worked with him. What meaning are our lives going to have if he starts to flop, and gets forgotten?

LOTSI  
It’s true. We’ve got to work with him.

RUTH  
Now do you understand? It’s silly to say that Bibi steals other people’s work and doesn’t give them credit. They hand their work over to him willingly, out of love, and then he puts his name on it lovingly. He’s like Henry Ford with his automobiles. Nobody says, “They’re not really Ford automobiles. He doesn’t design them, he doesn’t make the steel or rubber that goes into them, he doesn’t build them, but he puts his name on them and takes the credit.” But of course they’re Fords, because they wouldn’t exist without him. And everybody likes Ford cars, even Bibi. You’re a capitalist, it shouldn’t shock you.

LOTSI  
Why did I ever stop taking drugs?

RUTH  
I really don’t know how you can stand making some of the films you make without them.

LOTSI  
That’s what I wanted this play for. To go back on the stage.

RUTH  
I know.

LOTSI  
I miss the theater so much.

RUTH  
Theater in America is dirty because they only do it for money, never for love. You’d be better off in Europe. After the war.

LOTSI  
After the war. I feel like the Three Sisters, waiting to go to Moscow so I can live.

RUTH  
You want to go to Moscow?

LOTSI  
God, no!

RUTH  
They’d love you in Moscow.

LOTSI  
(going to bar)  
Want a Hemingway?

RUTH  
That’s a drink? What’s in it?

LOTSI  
Champagne and Pernod.

RUTH  
Tasty!

LOTSI  
I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth, I’ve got to get rid of it.

RUTH  
Poor Lotsi.

 

Scene 8: LOTSI is asleep. RUTH, INGA and CELIE sit nearby, drinking.

INGA  
We should wake him up and make him go to bed.

CELIE  
Oh, leave him there, the poor thing. He works so hard.

RUTH  
He drinks too much.

CELIE  
I don’t know what’s worse for him, the drugs or the liquor. He seems to be drinking all the time now.

INGA  
It’s better when he drinks. When he doesn’t, he cries.

CELIE  
Yes. Every time we’d get him off the morphine, he’d always be crying.

RUTH  
What a baby.

CELIE  
Yes, he’d cry about Hitler, and how much he hated having to leave Germany, and how frightened he was about his friends and his family who wouldn’t or couldn’t come with him.

RUTH  
They’re all over here now, aren’t they?

CELIE  
No, some of them stayed. And some of them got taken to the camps, naturally. He can’t live with that, he thinks it should have been him.

INGA  
A Jew who feels guilty. Such a novelty.

RUTH  
He’s awfully cute.

INGA  
Well, yes, he’s a movie star.

RUTH  
He’s not the leading man type.

CELIE  
Speak for yourself.

INGA  
He’s better-looking than your boyfriend.

RUTH  
It’s true.

CELIE  
What makes him look good really is what’s inside him. At heart, he’s a mensch.

RUTH  
A human being.

CELIE  
That’s right, a real human being. A mensch.

INGA  
Mensch.

CELIE  
Not many of them around these days.

(INGA goes off to the bathroom or something)

RUTH  
You get along awfully well, you two.

CELIE  
I’m not going to fight Inga. She’s good for Lotsi. That’s what counts.

RUTH  
I wish Bibi’s wife was more like you.

CELIE  
I think Lotsi feels sorry for Inga. Her husband’s a monster, you know, she’s got terrible stories about him, it’s awful. So Lotsi likes to think that he’s protecting her. He’s so good-hearted. They’re both going to have livers like old loofah sponges if they don’t stop drinking, but what are you going to do? This world is so terrible it’s almost better to live drunk, till Hitler’s gone, at least. You should take a close look at Inga, Ruthy, you should study her because if you’re going to spend the rest of your life with a famous man you’re going to have to deal with a lot of women like her. The ambitious girls. If there’s no other woman to fight, it’s no fun for them, it’s not romantic enough. And when you come right down to it, it’s not the man they’re after at all, it’s the game of hunting him down that they like. A woman like that doesn’t really need a man, she can take care of herself. If Inga gets her way and makes Lotsi divorce me--which means I have to divorce him, because it wouldn’t look right the other way--well, once she’s got him, what’s she going to do with him? She’ll stay with him as long as she’s having a good time, and then when his money runs out she’ll go off hunting for bigger game. And then he’ll have to console himself, and there’ll be another pretty girl with dollar signs in her eyes. Some day he’ll be too old for all this and then I’ll have him all to myself. And I’ll be too old to care about any of this. 

RUTH  
(as INGA enters)  
Inga--well, either of you--are there any extra sanitary pads around here?

CELIE  
Is something wrong?

RUTH  
If you want to know, I’ve been bleeding like a stuck pig.

CELIE  
Ruthy, you’ve got to see a doctor.

RUTH  
It’s all right, I’ve been doing this off and on for a while.

CELIE  
If nothing else, you’ll get anemia. It’s bad for the baby. We should go to the hospital.

RUTH  
Oh, no.

CELIE  
I’ll make an appointment for you with my gynecologist.

RUTH  
What are you seeing a gynecologist for?

CELIE  
Don’t ask. (Exits)

INGA  
You’re not going to die.

RUTH  
Huh?

INGA  
I know you think that. But you won’t die having this baby. IF you have it in the hospital. If you don’t, you’ll want to die, believe me. The hospital’s the place to have your baby. They’ve got gas they can give you and shots to take away the pain. And it’s clean. That’s the way you want to do it. 

RUTH  
The pain’s the only part I’m not looking forward to. 

INGA  
Oh, you can stand it. Especially with those wonderful shots they give you. Call me the minute you feel the baby coming. Or call Celie. She’ll make sure you get into a good hospital. Have you seen a doctor yet? You’d better go see one to make sure everything’s all right.

RUTH  
What happened to your baby? 

INGA  
Don’t tell anyone. He’s in England. At least I think he’s in England. They might have evacuated him because of the bombing.

RUTH  
Isn’t there any way you can bring him here?

INGA  
I will. I’ll go get him, after the war. After Lotsi marries me. 

RUTH  
Who’s taking care of him now?

INGA  
It’s hard to explain, it’s a long story. My husband and I were staying at a hotel, and we had to go out, so the hotel arranged for a babysitter to take the little one while we were gone. And then we came back, and I said, shouldn’t we go pick up the baby from the sitter, and my husband said not yet. And then it was time to check out of the hotel, and we had to leave town, and we didn’t have time to pick him up, and my husband said, the sitter can keep the kid a little longer, it’s all right, we’ll send her a little extra money. You see, we had to leave in a hurry because my husband got a job in America. And with the war on it’s not easy to get passage on a ship, you have to jump at the first chace you get. And then after we got there I got to do a screen test and that got me a contract in Hollywood, and then my husband and I decided since we weren’t living together anymore we’d just each go our separate ways, and then I met Lotsi. 

RUTH  
And the baby’s still in England.

INGA  
It’s not as though we abandoned him. I send him money all the time, I write letters whenever I get a chance. And she’s a nice girl, the girl he’s with. She takes him to see me whenever my movies are showing over there. I wonder what he’ll think when I tell him I’m going to marry the man who tried to murder me in my last picture. 

RUTH  
Doesn’t Lotsi want to--

INGA  
Listen. Lotsi doesn’t know. Don’t tell him. I’ll tell him myself when it’s time. After we’re divorced. I mean, when my husband and I are divorced, and Lotsi and Celie get their divorce and Lotsi marries me, and when the war’s over, of course. But I just wanted to reassure you and let you know that I’ve been through what you’re going through, and that there’s nothing at all for you to worry about. Nothing. A baby’s just a little thing. I lived through being a mother. So will you.

(CELIE enters)

INGA  
I’m going to bed. 

(Wakes up LOTSI) 

Come on. Come on, Inga wants her teddy bear. 

(Leads him off)

CELIE  
You know Colette, the French writer. When she was young her husband used to take the novels she wrote and publish them under his name. Then he went off with another woman, and she sued him and got the right to take credit for her own work. And now she’s one of the most successful writers in Europe.

RUTH  
She couldn’t have done that if she’d loved him.

CELIE  
Wouldn’t you like it if people knew you were more than just Bibi’s lover, that you’re a writer just as much as he is?

RUTH  
I don’t care what people think of me.

CELIE  
Well, wouldn’t you like your fair share of the money he makes?

RUTH  
I’ll get that when he marries me.

CELIE  
Whether you’re married or not, it’s still his money if it’s in his name. And on top of that he’ll be paying alimony and child support. How much is going to be left for you and your baby?

RUTH  
It doesn’t matter how we live, it’s the work we do together that’s important. Believe me, if this was just some sort of romance, we would have been through with each other years ago. You wouldn’t believe how many people have been stupid enough to try to use sex to hold onto Bibi. It doesn’t work, he just laughs at them. And I can’t even count how many women thought getting pregnant was the way to his heart, but that’s not the way, I know that well enough. But if you can write for him, if you can make a play that will really satisfy him--then you’ve got him, he’ll never let you go then. Even if he gets tired of you, even if he makes love to other women right in front of you, you know that you’ve got something he wants. It’s not easy to hold onto a man when you’re not pretty anymore, isn’t it? 

(INGA enters, takes two glasses and a bottle of champagne from the bar, exits)

CELIE  
I’m going to tell you a secret. That ring you’re wearing. If you pull on that ring just a little, it’ll come right off. See? It’s a shame it’s made of iron, not gold. But you can always sell it for scrap metal.  
(CELIE exits. BIBI enters)

RUTH  
Bibi, am I dreaming?

BIBI  
You look awake to me.

RUTH  
I was wanting you so much, and you’re here. But you’re not supposed to be out this late, there’s a curfew.

BIBI  
I don’t care.

RUTH  
You came just to see me.

BIBI  
I want to lie down in your arms.

(They lie down together)

Scene 9: The next morning. BIBI is sitting up, RUTH still asleep. CELIE comes in.

CELIE  
What happened to her?

BIBI  
What do you think?

CELIE  
Sleeping on that dirty carpet, that must not have been very nice. Why don’t I get you some towels and run you a bath.

BIBI  
You women are always trying to clean me. 

CELIE  
I didn’t mean to be impolite.

BIBI  
It’s hard for you to be on your best behavior around me. You Viennese with your smiles and smoothing over everything. You’d never say to my face what you really think of me.

CELIE  
What would be the point, Bibi?

BIBI  
You’re the type of woman I could never get.

CELIE  
Surely you don’t want to have all the women in the world, Bibi. When would you find time to write?

BIBI  
I only want the ones I want.

CELIE  
Well, with the way you live your life I suppose the more conventional sort of woman would be afraid of you.

BIBI  
You’re afraid of me, are you?

CELIE  
Do I seem afraid?

BIBI  
It was easier when I was younger. The girls really were afraid of me then.

CELIE  
I think Ruth’s a little afraid of you.

BIBI  
That’s just it, she’s one of the old ones, I’ve known her for years. The young girls I meet now...there’s something about them, they’re like wild animals. Bold, but wary. They won’t let you near them.

CELIE  
What you want is a nice tame woman like Ruth.

BIBI  
Oh, she was wild when I met her. But I tamed her.

CELIE  
Do you know, after Lotsi was in that propaganda picture about the Nazi prison camp, that terrible one where he takes that prisoner of war and has them cut off his--you’ve seen the picture. Anyway. After that picture came out Lotsi started getting letters from people that were very strange. Stranger than usual, I mean. They’ve always loved Lotsi because he plays the murderers, he’s always has a bit of a bondage following, but you wouldn’t believe the number of people who loved to see Lotsi in a Nazi uniform. My Lotsi! In the big black boots that the real murderers wear in the death camps! And he’d get letters like, “Dear Master, how I’d love to be tortured by you.” And Lotsi wanted to write back and say: “Dear lady, haven’t you have already been tortured enough by watching my movies?” I didn’t let him do it, of course, he knew I wouldn’t, that’s why he told me first. But I’m absolutely serious now, Bibi. Is that really the kind of girl you want? The girls who’d write letters like that?

BIBI  
Nietzsche said, “When you go to the girls, bring a whip.”

CELIE  
Do you really use a whip?

BIBI  
Yes, I really do. When they want it.

CELIE  
I don’t understand. I really don’t.

BIBI  
I’d make you understand, but you’re too dried up and ugly.

CELIE  
Aren’t you sorry you just said that? You do understand, what you said just now, you shouldn’t have said it. I can see you know it.

BIBI  
I know it.

CELIE  
You do that a lot, don’t you. Just say things.

BIBI  
Things like that just come out of me. 

CELIE  
And you really can’t control it, can you?

BIBI  
No. Except when I’m afraid.Then I can control myself.

CELIE  
So that’s why you’re a Communist. I do understand now. Oh, look at Ruth. Poor thing, let’s put her to bed.

BIBI  
Why wake her?  
(CELIE takes BIBI’s coat, puts it over RUTH)

CELIE  
There. She’ll smell your smell and it’ll comfort her. Come to the kitchen, I’ll make coffee. 

(CELIE and BIBI exit. INGA enters, gets water at the bar. BIBI enters).

BIBI  
Show me your breasts.

INGA  
Get out of here.

BIBI  
All right, just show me one. They’re real, aren’t they? Or is that rubber?

INGA  
(Shouting)  
Lotsi!

BIBI  
What, are you trying to get me in trouble with Lotsi? He’s not going to do anything to me. I’m more important to him than you are.

INGA  
I don’t care, I just want you to stop.

BIBI  
Are you really faithful to him?

INGA  
I love him.

BIBI  
I know what you love.

INGA  
(shouting)  
Lotsi!

BIBI  
I’ve got more money than he’s got, a lot more.

INGA  
You’re out of your mind.

BIBI  
You think he’s rich because the studio gives him a thousand a week.

INGA  
One thousand seven hundred twenty-five.

BIBI  
Whatever they give him, it’s never enough. Because he has to pay for houses, and clothes, and horses, and wives, and drugs, and cars, and psychiatrists. He’s broke, isn’t he? You’re not even wearing a ring.

INGA  
We’re not officially engaged.

BIBI  
I’ve got a ring for you.

INGA  
Like that ugly ring Ruth’s wearing?

BIBI  
All my women wear rings. Not gold ones. Gold’s soft. I make them wear iron. Because it’s unbreakable, it holds them like a spell, they can’t get away from me. But don’t think I don’t have gold. In Switzerland I’ve got safety deposit boxes crammed full of it. I always make them pay me in gold. It’s the best investment.

INGA  
If you’re so rich why do you dress like a bum?

BIBI  
I can’t tell my wife we don’t have any money if I’m wearing a diamond stickpin. Actually this suit cost a lot. Feel that cloth, it’s good stuff, not cheap. And my tailor’s the best. Look at the stitching on that shirt.

INGA  
My God, that’s silk.

BIBI  
Hard to come by with the war on.

INGA  
And you live like a beggar off your friends. 

BIBI  
If it makes Lotsi feel good to give me money, I’ll take it.

INGA  
I’m going to tell him everything you’ve said.

BIBI  
All right, but even if he believes you, he’ll still give me money to write for him. For the same reason he dangles his money in front of you so you’ll sleep with him. Because we’re German. And little Lotsi wants to be German too, he wants it so badly. He hates being stuck out here in the desert with all the other Jews. 

INGA  
Not true. Hollywood’s been good to him. At least it took him in, when the Germans chased him out.

BIBI  
The Nazis chased him out, not the Germans. The Germans loved him. It was the stupidest thing Hitler ever did, chasing all the best talent out of Europe. And then the Americans got to make all the money off them. Ridiculous! That’s why he’s losing the war. 

INGA  
God, the war, I wish the war was over.

BIBI  
You and Lotsi should get out of Hollywood as soon as you can. This is a factory town, it’s no place for an artist like him. He needs to go back to the theater. My theater.

INGA  
As soon as Ruthy writes a play for you.

BIBI  
Shut up. It doesn’t matter who writes the play. If my name’s on it, it’s mine. If Ruthy’s name were on it, nobody would look at it. You think Lotsi would have taken that woman in if she wasn’t full of my baby? She wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for me. Here comes your lover with his wife. Like a sow and a piglet. 

(CELIE enters, carrying coffee, with LOTSI.) 

The host and hostess! (To INGA) What does that make you?

LOTSI  
What’s Ruthy doing on the floor?

CELIE  
She’s dead to the world.

INGA  
I didn’t even see her.  
CELIE  
I don’t think she’s doing so well.

BIBI  
She’s just tired because I wore her out.

LOTSI  
Is that a good idea, when she’s pregnant?

BIBI  
You should have been a woman, Lotsi. Is that why the women like you so much, because you’re so tender with them? (Shakes RUTH) Get up. They think there’s something wrong with you, lying there.

RUTH  
Oh, I don’t feel good.

BIBI  
You probably drank too much last night.

RUTH  
I’m going to lie down. I don’t remember, which bed is mine?

LOTSI  
All the beds are yours. You’re my guest. (RUTH exits, with INGA and CELIE) What’s that you’ve got there, Bibi?

BIBI  
(who has taken out a piece of handwritten paper)  
A poem I wrote for you.

LOTSI  
For me?

BIBI  
It’s called “The Swamp.”

LOTSI  
The swamp? 

BIBI  
I wrote it for you. Little tadpole.

(BIBI gives poem to LOTSI. LOTSI reads it. It makes him cry.)

LOTSI  
This is me, isn’t it?

BIBI  
If you say so.

LOTSI  
It’s me all right. Stuck in a swamp. Sinking. With leeches.

BIBI  
It’s not your fault.

LOTSI  
Sucking the life out of me.

BIBI  
Hollywood is full of leeches. You can’t avoid them, it’s in the water.

LOTSI  
I don’t want to die here.

BIBI  
You won’t. We’ll win the war, and then we’ll go back. Germany’s going to need us. You said it yourself, there aren’t any artists left in Germany, the Nazis killed them all. 

LOTSI  
Will they want me back? A Jew? 

BIBI  
Of course. They’ll want your money, if nothing else. Meantime, you’ve got my play. Do it. Don’t worry whether it’s commercial or not. Don’t even worry about the critics. We’ll make art together. That’s what matters. That’s the only thing. 

LOTSI  
Yes.

(INGA enters)

INGA  
Something’s wrong. Ruthy’s got to get to a doctor. 

BIBI  
No, she doesn’t.

INGA  
Yes she does, something’s wrong. 

BIBI  
She just wants attention. (RUTH cries out offstage)

INGA  
Lotsi! (LOTSI exits with INGA.)

BIBI  
Just wants attention.

 

Scene 10. CELIE speaks to audience during scene change. 

CELIE  
I followed my man into the desert, and some good things came out of it. It’s certainly safer right now in Hollywood than in Europe. The only bombs we have to worry about are the ones that Lotsi’s in. And a lot of my friends are out here, courtesy of Chancellor Hitler. So it’s not as lonely as it might have been. As far as my own work, I’m at that awkward age for an actress when she’s too old to play the love interest and not old enough to play the grandmother types. So I have to wait till I’ve made that transition from middle-aged woman to little old woman. And then I can be loved again. It’s terrible how much we need to be loved. That’s what drives so many of us onto the stage. When Bela Lugosi was campaigning for the actors’ union in Hungary he used to say, “Love the actor, for he gives you his heart!” Well, that’s what the good actors do, anyway.

 

Scene 11: RUTH in hospital bed, with LOTSI visiting.

RUTH  
What did they do with the baby? Could you get him for me? If you’ll let me, I’ll bury him in the sand in your garden, by the sea.

LOTSI  
Ruth, the undertaker will see to all that.

RUTH  
I can’t afford an undertaker.

LOTSI  
You can’t afford to be in this bed. Don’t worry, everything’s taken care of. 

RUTH  
Where’s Bibi?

LOTSI  
I don’t know, I didn’t see him.

RUTH  
He went out for a smoke. Get him for me. 

(LOTSI goes out, returns after a minute.)

LOTSI  
He’s not there.

RUTH  
He must have left, he didn’t want to see you. That play, it’s never going to get produced, is it?

LOTSI  
No. He’s out of luck there.

RUTH  
Well, I’ve got to pull myself out of this. He needs me.

LOTSI  
Nice to be needed.

RUTH  
I should get out of here.

LOTSI  
Don’t hurry. You’ve been through a lot. Take a rest.

RUTH  
This is a private room. Must cost a lot. But Bibi can afford it. Or is he making you pay for it?  
(Cries) 

LOTSI  
Are you sad because of the baby? Don’t be. Given the state the world’s in, it’s better like this.

RUTH  
That’s a cliched thing to say, and it’s tasteless.

LOTSI  
What do you want from me, I’ve been in Hollywood for ten years.

RUTH  
You’ll never get away from here, you know. Money is another one of your addictions.

LOTSI  
It’s true. Bibi tried to help me, like all the other ones who tried to help me. Celie.

RUTH  
Sinking down in the Hollywood swamp.

LOTSI  
Covered with leeches. You’ve read it too?

RUTH  
Beautiful, isn’t it?

LOTSI  
Gorgeous.

RUTH  
Poor Lotsi. Glad I’m not a movie star.

LOTSI  
Every day you should thank God.

RUTH  
Have you ever thought of branching out in your career? Maybe directing.  


LOTSI  
Oh, God, yes. I’d love to direct.

RUTH  
You should do what the really great directors do, write your own screenplays.

LOTSI  
Oh, I write, I write. It’s a good outlet for frustrated creativity. I’ve even tried to write poems. With him. Did you know?

RUTH  
He let you write with HIM?

LOTSI  
We tried. I don’t think we finished anything.

RUTH  
He does it with everybody now. 

LOTSI  
Listen, I’m a literate man. I can read four or five of these disgusting scripts the studio sends me in one evening and still have time to drink myself to sleep and be awake for a five o' clock makeup call.

RUTH  
I’m sorry. Just the thought of you writing poetry.

LOTSI  
Just because I make my living making faces at people, at cameras, doesn’t mean my brain’s atrophied. You don’t know how much of my own dialogue I have to rewrite just so I can say it without sounding like an idiot. And they let me do it, too. The stuff I improvise is always better than the scripts they give me. So by definition I am a playwright, in my own right. Just like you are.

RUTH  
But don’t you see, even if you write your own material you still have to do what they tell you to do. You’re a slave.

LOTSI  
Do I need to be reminded of that?

RUTH  
Just like I’m a slave.  


LOTSI  
At least you love your master.

RUTH  
I’m lucky.

LOTSI  
And I’ve got to get back to the studio and make faces so I can pay for all this.

RUTH  
Lotsi, the mensch.

LOTSI  
A mensch! She knows mensch! We’ll be all right, Ruthy, we really will. I’ll see you soon. (Exits)

RUTH  
I followed my man out to the desert. It’s a good desert. What else do you do with your life? What’s a life?

 

THE END


End file.
